Ellen LaConte refers to herself as an “independent scholar, organic gardener, gregarious recluse, and freelance writer living in the Yadkin River watershed of the Piedmont bioregion of North Carolina.” A contributor to The Rag Blog, LaConte is the author of a controversial, widely-endorsed “meta-synthesis” book, “Life Rules: Why so much is going wrong everywhere at once and how Life teaches us to fix it.” A summary of her philosophy: “The global economy has gone viral. It is ravaging Earth’s immune system, triggering a Critical Mass of mutually reinforcing environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political crises that are compromising the ability of Earth’s human and natural communities to provide for, protect, and heal themselves.”

Host and Producer: Thorne Dreyer; Engineer and Co-Producer: Tracey Schulz. Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog (theragblog.blogspot.com) and the New Journalism Project. Recorded music and underwriting announcements have been removed from this podcast. Running time: 55:47.